Save IoT, Save The World!.

When looking for a title for this article, I remembered the famous phrase from TV serie Heroes, “Save the cheerleader, Save the world”. Sorry if one more time I abuse of shocking headlines to attract more readers.

Is the Internet of Thing (IoT) in danger? In light of the latest events I have attended in Berlin and London and news like this “Intel To Amputate Three Modules For Internet Of Things, Including Joule“, I really believe IoT is falling into the Gartner´s Trough of Disillusionment phase and we need IoT heroes to push it faster towards the Plateau of Productivity phase.

The other part of the article’s title, “Save the World,” may sound pretentious, but the world need to be save. This year hot spring and summer is confirming even the most disbelieving that Global Warming is very real (Read more at ” Global Warming, Christmas and the Internet of Things” and in spite I do not consider that only IoT can save our blue planet, per recent events like “Portugal forest fire“, IoT can help and much.

The heroes of IoT have lost their past evangelizing enthusiasm. What IoT heroes need to do?

The IoT Industry heroes need to focus on Customer Value. It is important that IoT heroes address real pain points rather than creating something gimmicky.

IoT Heroes can not do it alone, partnership with other heroes are absolutely essential for success in the Internet of Things.

IoT heroes need to be more creative with new Use Cases. As sensors continue to decrease in cost and IoT-specific networks get rolled out, everybody expect the number of use cases to increase exponentially.

Raise awareness about the major concern, IoT Security

IoT heroes should follow the trends by pairing connectivity with AI/Blockchain/AR/VR heroes

How can IoT save us from world challenges?

Gary Atkinson, Director of Emerging Technologies at ARM, identifies five main challenges that the planet is heading towards:

We’re running out of agricultural land

Water is our rarest commodity

Energy needs to be cheaper to be efficient.

Healthcare is a growing problem

Transport – Everyone will be able to afford cars, but won’t be able to afford to pay for fuel.

Save IoT, Save Agricultural land

If we all expect that IoT Agricultural solutions will be cheap, will have a long-lasting battery (+10 years), and will emit signals at least 5 miles, the smart farming will be a reality and we will not have excuses to save agricultural land.

Some companies to follow: Sigfox, Eightless, Enlight, Libelium, On Farm, John Deere, Trimble, and Valley Irrigation.

Agri-Tech East is an independent, business-focussed cluster organisation, to improve the international competitiveness and sustainability of plant-based agriculture and horticulture.

World Agri-Tech is held annually in London and San Francisco and is acclaimed as the most international gathering of agribusiness leaders, VC investors and agri-tech innovators. The next summit will take place in London on October 17-18, 2017. Find the full details here.

The IoT could for instance make desalinisation coming to a cost-effectiveness point. India uses mostly a pivot irrigation system, which means 30% of land is lost and 50 to 60% of water is lost by evaporation. The switch to tape based irrigation could save 2/3 of the water used.

Back in 2014, HydroPoint Data Systems utilised the Internet of Things (IoT) to help with water conservation efforts. According to the company and its partners, this system saved local people some $137m in expenses and 15 billion gallons of water in the first year alone.

Save IoT, Make Energy renewable and cheaper

Smarter, more efficient energy consumption it’s been the dream of environmentalists for decades. Now, it’s possible through the power of Internet of Things devices. Because of their connection capabilities, energy consumption such as the power in a commercial building or even smart home can be constantly monitored and adjusted.

Energy consumption could be reduced thanks to a smarter consumption and the implementation of micro generation storage. Knowing that lightning is the second biggest consumer of energy (after motors), and that there are about 1 billion streetlights in the world, upgrading streetlights infrastructure would strongly impact the world consumption.

Experts said that thanks to the Internet of Things, we can move from about 13 percent aggregate energy efficiency to 40 percent in the next 25 to 30 years.

Creating a new connected economy powered by renewable energy will cause a temporary surge in productivity worldwide as grids are modernized and infrastructure is rolled out. Installing wind and solar is labor intensive, for example, so for two generations, people will have plenty of work to do.

Additional info:

IoT company SkyGrid which is based in Melbourne and Sydney, is developing a smart hot-water system in partnership with hot-water company Quantum Energy. The aim is to intelligently control when a building’s hot-water systems are switched on, so that energy isn’t wasted heating water when no one is around to use it – something that currently wastes as much as 50% of a system’s power.

EnLight works on streetlight efficiency

Freestyle has partnered with engineering firm PowerTec, on an intelligent energy grid for Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Sensors and controllers in the grid intelligently manage energy sources to sway energy consumption towards renewables without sacrificing the reliability of the supply.

Save IoT, Save Healthcare

Despite incredible improvements in health since 1950, there are still a number of challenges, which should have been easy to solve.

In a 2016 report by Deloitte we can read “Change is the new normal for the global health care sector. As providers, payers, governments, and other stakeholders strive to deliver effective, efficient, and equitable care, they do so in an ecosystem that is undergoing a dramatic and fundamental shift in business, clinical, and operating models. This shift is being fueled by aging and growing populations; the proliferation of chronic diseases; heightened focus on care quality and value; evolving financial and quality regulations; informed and empowered consumers; and innovative treatments and technologies — all of which are leading to rising costs and an increase in spending levels for care provision, infrastructure improvements, and technology innovations.”

The IoT has brought many exciting advances to healthcare, improving patient experiences, increasing the quality of care provided, as well as updating and streamlining healthcare operations. From digital assistants to ‘smart’ medicine bottles, a new wave of connected devices could help people live independently for longer.

According with Goldman Sachs, IoT functions would produce an estimated $32.4 billion in annual revenue (45% from remote patient monitoring, 37% from telehealth, and 18% from behavior modification). But Healthcare IoT not only increases revenue, IoT reduces this cost by offering a more cost-effective method of managing chronic illness. The $305 billion estimated savings is accounted for by a combination of chronic disease management and telehealth.

Save IoT, Save Transportation

I leave this topic for a special post in the coming months.

Key Takeaway: Save IoT and IoT will enable Save the World

As I have commented many times the IoT is a Journey. Those who have been more time in the race know that there are easier and other more difficult stages, but not for that reason we abandon the hardness of climbing one of them. If we have not yet achieved that the IoT has a unique definition, it is not surprising that the term could disappear for reasons of business marketing. Nor does it matter that technologies such as AI, VR / AR, Robots, Blockchain, join to IoT to solve world problems. We could call it “Unified Information Technology“. The World of 2017 has some immense problems but he challenges for the next 10, 20 50 years can only be overcome if we save the IoT, the Enabler to Save the World.